Charlotte Motor Speedway hosts its first fall oval race since 2017. The Bank of America 400 covers 267 laps around the 1.5-mile oval. It is the third straight 1.5-mile track of the Chase, after Kansas and Las Vegas.
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NASCAR Best Bets for the Bank of America 400 at Charlotte
Race Winner — Kyle Larson (+450)
Kansas was a dominant win for the No. 5 car. Larson started second, finished first and averaged 1.3 in running position. That number is the average running position, so it shows he was near the front all day. He passed Chase Briscoe with seven laps left to win. Las Vegas was a harder race. His average running position was 12.0, but the numbers don’t tell the story. The team missed the setup and went a lap down after a lengthy pit stop. Larson battled back and still finished second. With a few more laps, Larson leaves Las Vegas with another win. With a decent setup to start, Larson dominates again.
His Charlotte averages are easy to pass over, and the reasons are in how the races went. Two of Larson’s five Gen-7 races were doubles. He was juggling racing open-wheel cars and stock cars against the best competition in the world. In 2025, he raced the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day. He qualified second and led 34 laps. He also hit the wall on lap 38 and was caught in a wreck on lap 246, which left him 37th. In 2022, he started last after a practice crash and took two pit penalties. He still led late before a wreck left him ninth. In 2023, he was running fourth with 26 laps left when he wrecked and finished 30th. Those results, plus a fifth this May, give him an average finish of 20.3 over four Next Gen starts at Charlotte. That May race was his clean one. He started 18th, averaged 5.6 in running position and won Stage 1. He won the 2021 Coca-Cola 600.
Race Winner — Chase Briscoe (+550)
Las Vegas ended with Briscoe in Victory Lane. He started fourth, averaged 2.7 in running position and won by 1.376 seconds over Larson. Kansas was nearly as strong. He started 23rd, averaged 7.0 and finished fourth. He ran second behind Larson for most of the race and passed him for the lead on lap 238. He then brushed the wall between laps 257 and 265, and Larson took the lead back. Over the two races, his average running position is 4.8.
Charlotte is the question mark. He has no wins in five Next Gen starts here, with an average finish of 17.2 and an average running position of 14.1. The 600-mile Memorial Day Weekend race is a bit of an outlier. It may not be the best indicator for the first fall Charlotte oval race since 2017. That being said, Briscoe looked good for most of the rain-shortened 2026 Coca-Cola 600. He started fifth, averaged 3.8 in running position and scored stage points in all three stages. A wreck on lap 329 dropped him to 34th.
